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Roboocyte User Manual
7.5
Oocyte Impalement and Membrane Potential Check
The following protocol describes the manual impalement of an oocyte. The membrane
potential is controlled to check for a successful impalement.
The depth is defined by the recording distance Oocyte in the Adjustment wizard or Settings.
It is not necessary that the electrodes already penetrate the cell. A proper impalement with
both electrodes can be achieved by a stepwise movement and controlled by checking the
membrane potential. A stepwise impalement sequence is strongly recommended, because
oocytes differ in size and a proper impalement is not as easy to achieve with the probe as it is
with the injection needle. Do not move the TEVC probe too fast to avoid penetrating the cell
too deeply, which could result in a huge leak current.
Note: Switching of the electrodes may be accompanied by amplifier oscillation. This is
considered normal behavior and does not impair the functionality of the amplifier. Wait about
10 s for the amplifier to steady.
Hint: It is not important which electrode you check first.
After the TEVC probe has successfully impaled the oocyte, you can perform an automated
optimization of the amplifier. This is especially useful if you have fast channels. See the RSL
Parser Help or the Roboocyte Scripting Language manual for more information.
1. Under Oocyte Impalement, click Oocyte to bring the electrodes near the oocyte's surface.
The TEVC probe is moved according to the Distance Oocyte settings.
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